Watch Lonesome For Free

I'll tell you why so serious

Crappy film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a shame Lonesome hasn't been seen more widely by modern audiences. The limited acclaim it's received is well deserved. Lonesome is very simple. It's no more than a little romantic movie of two people who fall in love and then appear to lose each other. But the whole thing is told expertly well. The camera moves about freely in many unique and interesting ways. Visually alone, it's quite the spectacle. It also helps that the two in the lead roles are enjoyable.Glenn Tyron is good enough in his lead role, but his romantic interest, played by Barbara Kent, is the real star. She is fun and playful when needed, but her soulful eyes convey more pain then most people ever could with their voices. Her charisma is evident from shot one. The only downside to the film is the inclusion of a few sound scenes. Clearly done just to cash in on the new craze, it actually only serves to grind the story to a halt. It forces the movie to become stationary, and the dialogue itself is pretty inane.I cannot recommend the film strongly enough, though. It's as enjoyable of a romance as you'll ever see. There's nothing too complicated here: just two people falling in love, and it's a joy to see.

Two ordinary people - their personalities seem to jump out from the start of this brilliant film. Mary is cheery, greeting every day with a smile, Jim is a jokester, the life of the party, she is a switchboard operator, he is a machinist. But they are lonely and meet after taking the advice of a billboard that encourages people to have a fun day at Coney Island. Jim spies Mary on the bus and tries to attract her attention but it is only at the beach when Jim finds Mary's cherished ring that they get to know each other.The version I saw was all silent, with Hungarian titles no less, probably packaged for Paul Fejo's own country, to show he was much more than a bacteriologist!!! Fejos was another import for Universal who, along with Fox, thoroughly embraced the European Expressionism movement that peaked in Hollywood in the late 1920s. Fejo didn't stay in America long and by the early 1930s he was back directing in Europe but with "Lonesome" he included some striking neo expressionistic camera effects including multiple super impositions etc.Like "The Crowd" the two leads were played by relative unknowns and they were perfect in their roles. Barbara Kent had found fame of sorts by playing the good girl in "Flesh and the Devil" but who was going to remember her with Greta Garbo playing the villainess. Glen Tryon had failed to make the grade - initially he was a Hal Roach discovery who saw him as another Harold Lloyd. He was also given the role in Fejo's next film "Broadway". Both of them are almost too convincing as the lonely couple who as the evening progresses find themselves caring very deeply about the other person. They are separated when the roller coaster that Mary is riding in catches on fire and Jim, who is thought of as being a nuisance is hauled off to night court. There is an extended bit of silent dialogue here (similar to a scene on the beach where Jim is dreaming of blue picket fences etc) which was probably another "goat gland" sequence.I thought Tryon was very moving - outside cocky but inside eaten up with loneliness. At one stage he says "I am so lonely and alone - I can't stand my own company". The emotion and the intentness builds as they look for each other at the fair that is now fast becoming desolate. At the end they both return to their flat, overcome by despair - he tries to play records and her little doll, the one memory of the day, falls off the table and breaks. They then discover that they live in the same building!!!Fejo found the idea in a newspaper article about loneliness in New York but I think it shares similarities with a 1915 film "Young Romance". In the older movie, two youngsters who, unbeknown to themselves, work in the same department store, read the same romantic serial and go on a week's holiday determined to find some romance at any cost - preferably with someone wealthy. Mary and Jim, early in the movie, try to pretend to be more exotic that they really are, then Mary laughs and says that they have probably both been reading the same romantic serial!!Highly, Highly Recommended.

I saw a bad print ,on you tube ,with rock music and Czech titles.I was not aware that this was an American silent,and that actor in it was Glen Tyrone ,of king of jazz fame.I thought it was a Slovakian silent,but, when I read the i.m.b d . about it ,I was surprised.It was a silent that originally had synchronized music and sound effects and had talking sequences.I got real curious about it more.Then I read that it wasn't lost at all.It was played in archive theaters.I even suggest t.c.m if they could considered playing it .They ignored me .Then ,by surprise,I discovered that the restored version of lonesome was put On d.v.d. ,with four other Paul Fejos films.So I bought it.It was a good Tone poem about two lonely people ,played by Glen Tyron and Barbera Kent.She is a switch board operator ,while he is a machinist.They both end up meeting each other on Koney Island Beach.But only learn their name later on ,Mary,",so! it was Mary!Mary!, and Jim.The movie looks a little bit similar to Sunrise.Some of the Koney island amusement park night scenes were tinted ans stencil colored.It was a good effect.It also seemed that Andy Divine played a small part too, he was also a bit leaner in 28.The talking sequences looked like they were done in a hurry.The Camera did not move.Not even zoom lenses were used.The police station sequence was very static in it's sound talking photography.But they probably had a date type release the film and could not take more time for better shots, may be.In spite of this this is a very good silent ,sound classic film.One of the reason probably why it took time to get it on home video, was the fact,The song ,"always,written by Irving Berlin,Was in the movie as back ground music and a record sequence.The copy rights had to be paid to the Irving Berlin estate,may be.This comes with three other Paul Fejos classic films, Then talking version of Broadway, 1929.The silent version of ," The last performance,1929.It is worthy of collection.Available from Criterion and amazon.com and your specialty shops. I don't think wall mart would have this, may be. 09/22/12

A sister of Sunrise and The Crowd, this film is more emotional and poetic than those landmarks and every bit as great. The plot concerns two working class American types, he works in the factory, she works on the intercom who meet by chance on a fairground and fall in love and then lose each other without knowing where the other lives.The film's beginning is to be treasured, it follows in detail the morning ritual of first the girl and then the man in their respective homes. The effect conveyed is the organization and elegance of women over the tardy, rushed, half-baked activities of men. The love story between the two characters is so beautifully etched and played so naturalistically by the actors(Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon) that the sense of loss in the latter half of the film is all the more painful and heart-breaking. The film deals with a certain truth about living in a city that has remained constant even after a good 80 years. At once a constant sense of community and at other an equally constant sense of loneliness from being in a crowd.